First Fruits of Freedom

The Migration of Former Slaves and Their Search for Equality in Worcester, Massachusetts, 1862-1900

Janette Thomas Greenwood

Publication Year: 2010

Greenwood chronicles one of the first collective migrations of blacks from the South to the North during and after the Civil War. She describes a network forged between Worcester County, Mass., and eastern North Carolina as a result of Worcester regiments taking control of northeastern N.C. during the war. White soldiers from Worcester, a hotbed of abolitionism, protected refugee slaves, set up schools for them, and led them north at war's end. Migrants established a small black community in Worcester with a distinctive southern flavor, but were generally disappointed in their hopes for full-fledged citizenship.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

This book grew out of a seminar on black Worcester that I co-taught my first
year at Clark University with my colleague Sally Deutsch, in conjunction with
the Worcester Historical Museum. Saadia Wiggins Lawton...

Introduction

In June 1862, amidst news from the Civil War battlefront, the Worcester Daily
Spy announced the “arrival of a ‘Contraband’”— a slave who had absconded
to the safety of Union lines in search of freedom. The refugee had just come
from New Bern, North Carolina, where he...

1. The Guns of War

As chattering telegraphs relayed the news of the Confederate attack on Fort
Sumter to towns, villages, and cities across the nation, many Americans, both
North and South, seemed to welcome the news with a sense of relief. In retrospect,
their reaction seems an odd way to greet...

2. The Prettiest Blue Mens I Had Ever Seed

In the fall and early winter of 1861, the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
regrouped at Poolesville, Maryland, veterans of the disastrous battle at Ball’s
Bluff. The unit had sustained well over a hundred casualties in what would
prove to be a mere taste of the bloodshed they would suffer...

3. These Are the Children of This Revolution, the Promising First Fruits of the War

Worcester’s incensed soldiers and citizenry soon responded to the crisis in
New Bern with more than words of moral indignation. The calamity precipitated
by Governor Stanly resulted in the first of what ultimately would
be hundreds of New Bern’s former slaves resettling...

4. A New Promise of Freedom and Dignity

The morning of 4 July 1865 was greeted in Worcester with an anticipation and
excitement not experienced in years. For the previous two months, townspeople—
from schoolchildren to captains of industry— had prepared for a
celebration worthy of the momentous Union victory...

5. A Community within a Community

On the afternoon of 22 June 1891, members of the Mount Olive Baptist
Church gathered to lay the cornerstone for their new church on John Street in
Worcester. Joined by representatives from the city’s two other black...

Epilogue

Historian William McFeely, in Sapelo’s People, his masterful portrait of a
Georgia Sea Island community, writes, “African-Americans’ anger may derive
as much from the broken promises of Reconstruction as from slavery
itself. So much promise was held out...

Index

Series Title: John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and CultureSeries Editor Byline: Series Editors: Waldo E. Martin Jr., University of California, Berkeley, and Patricia Sullivan, University of South Carolina
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